Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be

Over the last few decades, Americans have turned college admissions into a terrifying and occasionally devastating process, preceded by test prep, tutors, all sorts of stratagems, all kinds of rankings, and a conviction among too many young people that their futures will be determined and their worth established by which schools say yes and which say no.

That belief is wrong. It’s cruel. In WHERE YOU GO IS NOT WHO YOU’LL BE, Frank Bruni explains why, giving students and their parents a new perspective on this brutal, deeply flawed competition and a path out of the anxiety that it provokes.

Bruni, a bestselling author and a columnist for the New York Times, shows that the Ivy League has no monopoly on corner offices, governors’ mansions, or the most prestigious academic and scientific grants. Through statistics, surveys, and the stories of hugely successful people who didn’t attend the most exclusive schools, he demonstrates that many kinds of colleges-large public universities, tiny hideaways in the hinterlands-serve as ideal springboards. And he illuminates how to make the most of them. What matters in the end are a student’s efforts in and out of the classroom, not the gleam of his or her diploma.

Where you go isn’t who you’ll be. Americans need to hear that-and this indispensable manifesto says it with eloquence and respect for the real promise of higher education.

What's Inside

Praise

"For students, parents, teachers, and everyone else suffering during the college admissions process, Frank Bruni offers an outstanding resource. Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be is a thought-provoking look at how the system works-and a fresh, reassuring reminder of what really matters in the college experience."-Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of The Happiness Project and Happier at Home

"The supposition that intelligence can be measured, that success can be predicted, and that the combination of the two creates happiness is rightly exploded in this sharply observed and deeply felt book. In deconstructing the college admissions process, Frank Bruni exposes the folly by which enfranchised people measure their own lives. He speaks with a voice of urgent sanity."-Andrew Solomon, National Book Award-winning author of Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity

"For any adolescent sweating college admissions--and perhaps more critically, for any parent sweating college admissions--this book is required reading. With systematic, soothing precision, Bruni amasses evidence that lives up to his title, showing readers that there are thousands of paths to success in this world, only one of which is ivy-strewn, and that the fetish we've made of marquee-name colleges is as practically misguided as it is psychologically destructive. The result is a beta-blocker and eye-opener all rolled into one, certain to allay the anxious and enlighten the curious-particularly when April rolls around."-Jennifer Senior, bestselling author of All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood

"Frank Bruni provides the perfect course correction for students and parents who get sucked into the college admissions frenzy. I should know. I was one of them."-Katie Couric

"Frank Bruni has a simple message for the freaked-out high school students of America. Calm down. Where you go to college matters far, far less than what you do once you get there (and afterward). He urges families to look beyond the usual suspects and find a school that's going to offer something more useful than a window sticker. His clear, well-researched book should be required reading for everyone caught up in the college-admissions game."-William Deresiewicz, bestselling author of Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and The Way to a Meaningful Life

"For families caught up in college-application madness, this book provides a much-needed tonic. For the rest of us, it's an inspiring call for a wiser, saner approach to American higher education."-Paul Tough, bestselling author of How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character

"Parents naturally want the best for our children, and that's made us vulnerable to an exorbitant, anxiety-producing, soul-crushing college admissions process. Bruni not only challenges its premise but offers (desperately!) welcome relief, reassurance and comfort to those going through it. I will be giving this book to every single family I know with a high schooler!"-Peggy Orenstein, bestselling author Cinderella Ate My Daughter

"Your worth is not determined by the university you went to. Or, in other words, "Where You Go is Not Who You'll Be." Alleluia. That's the exact mantra every student and parent must heed as they navigate the stressful college admissions process. I'm doing it for the fourth time and this excellent writer's new book could not have come at a better time for me. As Frank Bruni brilliantly demonstrates, your worth is your worth and it's yours to make wherever you go." -Maria Shriver

"Written in a lively style but carrying a wallop, this is a book that
family and educators cannot afford to overlook as they try to navigate
the treacherous waters of college admissions." -Kirkus